5 Tips for High-Quality Content Writing

With content writers and agencies publishing about 70 million posts a month on WordPress alone, quality content writing is key to standing out from the competition. This kind of content marketing grabs your reader’s attention, engages them, and keeps them coming back for more.

Learn how to take your content game to the next level with top tips for quality content writing — from insight into crafting people-first content to improving readability.

Why Is High-Quality Content Writing Important?

Time is money in the business world. So, why bother with quality content writing if it’ll slow down your content creation process? 

The time and effort that quality content creation takes is well worth it. Some of the benefits of high-quality content include:

• Improving reputation by positioning your brand as an authority in your field.
• Boosting search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and search engine rankings, as Google loves original, helpful content.
• Generating quality leads and increasing conversion rates by attracting and educating current and prospective customers.

5 Tips for High-Quality Content Writing

It’s important to note here that there’s no secret formula to high-quality content writing. What works for one business or industry may not work for another, so you may need to customize the approach for your brand.

That being said, good blog posts and articles tend to share similar traits. So, here are some tried-and-true tips for high-quality content writing that you can work into your content creation process.

1. Write for your audience, not search engines

Incorporating SEO best practices into your content may be key to ranking well on search engines. But you shouldn’t do so at the expense of your readers — Google prioritizes people-first content.

According to Google’s guidelines on creating people-first content, its ranking criteria are meant to benefit searchers. Google aims to provide users with the most helpful, reliable information in search results.

Fortunately, Google has provided insight into what they’re looking for in their guidelines, such as informative content that includes research and analysis. 

Review Google’s content resources to assess the quality of your content and identify areas for improvement.

2. Research and focus on creating unique, original content

Thoroughly researching a topic is essential to creating quality content. It ensures accuracy and also helps you discover what’s missing from competitor content — so you can make your brand stand out. Filling in these gaps provides a fantastic angle to create original and unique content.

After all, why should someone click on your content if it's little more than a copy of everything else? Even Google is now using an information gain score (a measure of the unique information your articles offer) to determine your content’s unique value and then apply this data to ranking decisions.

How to put your spin on subjects that have already been covered hundreds of times:

• Try new angles. Can you approach the topic differently to make it stand out?
• Interview experts to get original quotes and insights. With original information from expert sources, you can ensure content is both accurate and unique.
• Use examples, especially personal ones. There’s nothing more unique than you! Besides, personal anecdotes can also help you connect with your audience.

3. Make content easy to read and engaging

Writing content is one thing. But if you want people to actually read it, it should be clear and engaging. Who wants to struggle through a dry, hard-to-read article when they could just Google their way to another result?

To improve the readability and engagement of content:

• Use a readability checker. Simply enter your text into the box, hit “Analyze,” and get text issues, stats, keyword density, and readability scores at the click of a button.
• Write an attention-grabbing headline and hook. The headline and hook are the first things readers will see. Consider what would make you want to keep reading.
• Use visuals and headings to break up content. A wall of text can be daunting for your audience.
• Write short, simple sentences and paragraphs. Aim for only one idea per sentence and paragraphs that cover a maximum of four lines.

4. Use AI as a writing assistant, not an author

AI-generated content has pros and cons. It can be helpful for brainstorming or creating content briefs. However, you won’t get high-quality content writing from ChatGPT or other AI-writing tools alone — and Google agrees. In one of its latest updates, it seems to be penalizing websites with AI content.

This doesn’t mean you have to stop using AI entirely. AI tools are still useful for:

• Creating outlines.
• Brainstorming topic ideas.
• Researching, including keyword research (just remember to fact-check research).
• Proofreading work.

The human touch is key to creating content that resonates with your audience. So, if you’re using AI to assist your work, consider using an AI content detector to highlight potential instances of AI that require further review. 

5. Update content regularly

This is often overlooked, but you shouldn’t post an article once and call it a day. High-quality content writers strive to keep their content up-to-date, as Google monitors content freshness.

One of the best ways to monitor outdated content is to conduct content audits. If you find any articles or blog posts suffering from content decay and losing rankings or traffic, you’ll know where updates are necessary.

Then, with Google cracking down on AI-generated content, Originality.ai’s website scanner is a quick and easy way to monitor the amount of AI content on your website. The AI website scanner identifies pages that are potentially AI-written so you can edit and update them to provide quality, people-first content for your audience. 

The Bottom Line: High-Quality Content Writing Takes Time

Incorporating all of these tips can add a considerable amount of time to your content creation process. But don’t let that deter you!

Alongside SEO best practices, high-quality content writing is essential to getting your content in front of readers. And for many of us, that’s the entire point of online content creation.

So, be sure to write for your audience, create original content, improve readability, and keep content up-to-date. It can take some time to see results, but quality content writing is worth the effort.